9/11 was traumatic for all of us, yet I feel hesitant to even mention it publicly for fear of enabling demagogues, fascists, and nationalists. 9/11 was a great crime against humanity, but it’s also a crime that has been turned into social currency by bad people in order to rationalize bad and dangerous international behavior by our government.
That being said, this was my 9/11:
I was working on a loading dock. My first son (Eliot) was born in July of 2000. I was married in 1999. I was 18, and fresh out of high school. We were listening to NPR as we unloaded a delivery truck when we heard the first plane hit. We all rushed to the break room to watch the live coverage. There was lots of speculation and wonderment. We were watching live as the second plane hit. Then the pentagon. You know how it went.
All of my kids grew up in a post 9/11 world, and we all currently live in a post 9/11 world. Bad people cashed in on our collective national fear and horror. They cashed in on our experience of having our bubble of privilege burst by retribution from outsiders for generations of America’s commodification of countries primarily inhabited by folks of a darker skin tone, with foreign sounding names, customs, and religions. Bad people were quick to reframe the attack as an expression of foreign hostility towards our ‘freedoms’. They also capitalized on our new outlook of resolve and unity.
To understate the significance of today completely, 9/11 changed everything for everyone, for all time, all over the world. There is only a before and after.
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